The present invention relates to dental apparatus, and particularly to apparatus for use with a dental unit of the conventional type for driving and/or cooling various dental appliances to be coupled to the dental unit. The invention also relates to a method for performing a dental or other medical operation on a person.
The conventional dental unit, as commonly found in dental offices, includes an air inlet to be coupled to a source of pressurized air, a water inlet to be coupled to a source of pressurized water usually the water tap, and outlet couplings for coupling various dental appliances to be used in treating the patient. The various dental appliances commonly used include high-speed turbine drills, slow-speed drills, triple syringes and ultrasonic scalers.
High-speed turbine drill is driven by compressed air at speeds as high as 400,000 rpm and is cooled by a spray of water and air. Such a drill is used for making incisions in hard tissue, such as teeth, while preparing a space where restoration is to be executed or while filing down a tooth for fitting a crown. High-speed turbine drills are also used for incisions of bone tissue in the jaw during surgical procedures such as extraction, periodontal surgery, and the like.
Slow-speed drills are driven by air or electricity at low speeds from 500 to 50,000 rpm. Such drills are used for cleaning teeth from decay processes (caries), for polishing teeth, and for performing implants of titanium screw and/or teeth in the jawbone.
Triple syringes are used for delivering water, compressed air, or both, through a nozzle to clean, rinse and dry various treated areas such as tooth tissue, root canal, gum tissue and bone tissue.
Ultrasonic scalers are instrument tips attached to a transducer through which high-frequency current causes vibrations of approximately 20,000-30,000 cps in conjunction with a stream of water to remove hard deposits (e.g., calculus) and stain, and to smooth the surface of the root of the tooth. Such instruments are also used in curettage procedures, i.e., for removing necrotic tissue lining the soft tissue wall of periodontal pockets.
The foregoing dental appliances are frequently applied to areas of an open wound. Since such appliances are driven and/or cooled by air or water (usually tap water) from the pressurized water source and by the air from the source of compressed air, there is a risk of contaminating the open wound with chemicals, bacteria, spores and/or viruses contained in the water and air. While various kinds of filters are commonly used, such filters are generally inefficient for removing all the above sources of contamination, and indeed in many cases the filter itself becomes a source of secondary infection by bacteria or other contaminating elements contained within it.